series

I feel like I’m a bad moviegoer because I usually do not finish watching all of the entries in a series. The only one I can recall that I’ve seen all the way would be the Toy Story trilogy. I can’t claim Star Wars since they’re still making more. The question I ask myself is how come?

The first thing that comes to mind is how invested I was in the previous entries. Most of the time, I cringe upon hearing that a sequel is in the works for a movie that I didn’t care for. Problem is, I usually haven’t seen the movie in the first place and make my judgement based on reviews. But when it’s a movie that I did see and liked, I wonder how well it will do once it is released and when it does, I’ll see it, like Pixar’s latest outing (not Planes). That way, I will have walked the walk and can talk the talk.

The second reason is that when I ask people how far I should watch in a series, they’ll tell me to stop at a certain point, usually before the end of the series. I’m sure they have good judgement but how do I know that I should stop at that point and not continue? I don’t. It would seem fair to at least watch all of the entries before I can make an informed judgement, even if one of the entries is widely hated.

The third reason is the number of entries and how long they last. I’ve only seen the first LOTR movie and that took some time to get through. Same with The Godfather, The Terminator, and Alien. The Bond series will take maybe a month or two depending on my schedule. What do all of these have in common? They have a sequel as an entry in the 1001 Movies book, meaning I need to continue the series. I’ve seen at least the first entry in all of the aforementioned series but I had a hard time staying invested in the movie. Because of that, I’m worried that I’ll have the same problem in the later entries.

What exactly am I supposed to do about it? I could try to force myself to watch even if I stop caring halfway though but that’s the worst thing I can do and have done. I don’t want to stop or walk out of the movie because I feel like that’s giving up. I try to make each viewing a learning experience whether through how it was filmed or how it could have been fixed or why it won so many awards. This applies to movies that I have disliked, even some Best Picture winners.

It’s a vicious cycle that I am trying to resolve but haven’t had much success. Any suggestions on how to fix it? Or do you have a series that for some reason you can’t finish?